The Land of Mystery eBook

Still there was a probability that after rallying
from their repulse, more of them had swam across and
were at that moment on the western shore, on the watch
for just such a movement as was under way.

If this should prove the case, it could not be expected
that Ziffak could interfere in time to prevent another
sanguinary conflict; but that might come about, even
if the explorers remained where they had stopped until
daylight. If the Aryks were prepared to attack
them while on the move, they could do so with equal
effect while they were not in motion.

The increasing roar of the rapids was a great disadvantage,
for it drowned all inferior noises and compelled our
friends to depend on their eyesight alone to discover
the approach of danger.

There was an involuntary shudder on the part of all,
when they came opposite the scene of the desperate
fight, and they hastened past without exchanging a
word.

They had not much further to go when they found themselves,
for the time, at the end of their voyage. It
was impossible to ascend further, because of the rapids,
which tossed the canoe about as though it were an
eggshell.

A halt was therefore made, and, at the moment this
took place, all observed that day was breaking, the
light rapidly increasing in the direction of the Aryk
village.

“Just what I told you!” exclaimed
Jared Long, as the simultaneous discovery was made
by all, that the forest around them was swarming with
the vengeful savages, eager for another and bloodier
joust at arms.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE NICK OF TIME.

The peril which menaced the explorers was more frightful
than any that they had been called upon to face since
entering that mysterious land known by the name of
the Matto Grosso.

The Aryks numbered more than half a hundred, all active,
vigilant and armed with their fearful poisoned javelins.
They had taken position among the trees on the western
bank of the Xingu, at the base of the rapids, at the
very point where the white men intended to shoulder
their canoe and make their last portage.

Instead of being in the open, where they were in plain
sight of the defenders, and fair targets for their
unerring Winchesters, they were stationed behind the
numerous trunks or lying on the ground, where little
could be seen of them except their bushy heads and
gleaming black eyes, as they glared with inextinguishable
hate at the white men who had slain so many of their
number.

The suspicious Long was looking in the direction,
with the thought that if any ambush was attempted,
that would be the very spot, when he caught sight
of a dusky figure, as it whisked from behind a narrow
trunk to another that afforded better cover.

That hasty glance in the dim morning light revealed
an alarming number of heads glaring around the trees
and from among the undergrowth like so many wild beasts,
aflame with fury and the exultation of savages who
knew that their enemies were at last forced inextricably
into their grasp.